BUCHAREST, July 19, 2014- Personally and on behalf of Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Titus Corlăţean conveys the most sincere condolences as well as deepest sympathy and solidarity to the family of the Romanian citizen and families of all victims who died in the air crash of July 17th, 2014, that saw the loss of all passengers on the Malaysia Airlines plane.

Yesterday, July 18th, 2014, Minister Titus Corlăţean sent messages of condolences to his counterparts in states that also lost citizens to the air crash in east Ukraine.

Also, Minister Titus Corlăţean called his Dutch counterpart Frans Timmermans to convey condolences for the loss of such a large number of Dutch citizens. In turn Minister Timmermans expressed sympathy for the loss of a Romanian national who held double citizenship. The two Ministers agreed it was necessary to start an independent international investigation that would clearly establish the causes that led to this tragedy.

Romania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs considers that immediate unrestricted access must be granted to the crash site so that a comprehensive independent investigation can take place that will clearly establish the causes of the plane crash. Even in the absence at this point of information on the causes for the air crash it is evident that continued military action in east Ukraine is at the basis of continued instability in the entire region.

Minister Titus Corlăţean feels that the air tragedy in east Ukraine, close to its border with the Russian Federation, once again demonstrates the need to urgently end the conflict that is threatening the Ukrainian state’s territorial integrity and is destabilizing the entire region. In that context the head of Romanian diplomacy draws attention to the need to primarily provide security for the people and prevent loss of innocent human lives.